Influence of growth factors on the yield and quality of dry beans

investigations were made on the relationship between plant density and plant height, and on the yield, thousand seed mass, and ratio of diseased and broken seeds of varieties with different seed sizes. Experiments were carried out to analyse the effects of potassium on the yield, bacterial diseases and nutritive quality of the seed of bean varieties. Three dry bean cultivars representing the small, medium and large seed size groups were investigated. Six plant density treatments were chosen based on theoretical seed norms, taking the germinative value of the seeds into consideration. The correlation between plant density and yield average showed that the volume of yield increased for varieties with large and medium-sized seeds up to a plant density of 285-400 thousand/ha, after which it declined. On the basis of the results, yield averages at plant densities of 285-334 thousand plants/ha were 0.17 t/ha higher than those achieved at low density (200 thousand plants/ha). At greater plant density the plant height increased in the case of large-seeded varieties and there was a considerable decrease in the thousand seed mass. With an adequate water supply a high level of potassium decreased the number of pods and seeds per plant compared with the basic level, which gave a yield of 2.5 t/ha. The use of high rates of potassium fertilizer decreased the number of infected seeds, but the differences were only significant for the small-seeded variety. A moderately high potassium level was advantageous for food quality, particularly during drought.